SPARKS & HONEY CULTURAL STRATEGISTS
Your source for staying current with the latest high energy emerging trends shaping business and pop culture.
We leverage a proprietary Cultural Listening and Mapping platform, that identifies cultural bursts in real time, scores their energy level, projects their lifespan and analyzes their cultural resonance. Our unique process helps brands remain in sync with culture and make more strategically informed business decisions across disciplines including marketing, communications, product development and long term planning.
Through a combination of real-time monitoring of fast-moving culture and the comprehensive identification and analysis of longer-term trends, sparks & honey accelerates, hijacks, and ultimately ignites culture on behalf of clients.
AdAge named sparks & honey as 1 of 10 Top Agencies to Watch in 2014.
Near Death Experiential and Our Increasingly Strange Future
Expect haunted houses, roller coasters, or puzzle rooms that can quite literally scare you to death (after you’ve signed the waiver) and marketing that’s so in your face, it could kill you.
Anatomy of a Meme: From Inside Joke to Viral Celebrity
Though memes have made their way into mass culture, they will likely remain more surprise than science.
The Future of Sex is Buried in the Sock Drawer
The future of sex is here, or at least it could be, technically speaking.
On Data Horticulture
“The last decade has been about sharing. The next decade will be about protecting.” - Dave Pell.
What’s the Future of the Sharing Economy?
Where is the Collaborative Economy heading and what value will it bring to business, brands and customers of the future?
Struggling to Stay Relevant? Incorporate these Four Cultural Marketing Concepts
As technology and media continue to evolve at an exponential rate, marketers and consumers alike have started to adopt new practices and behaviors to ensure that they keep pace.
Have We Reached Peak Cronut?
Traditionally, cultural waves around food would take a much longer time to spread, generate hype and spawn imitators and fade out- but not at the breakneck pace that we are witnessing in 2013.
Bartering With Personal Data: In the Future, Everyone Will be Private For 15 Minutes
Though the subculture of privacy enthusiasts will strengthen, don’t expect it to grow significantly or to influence mainstream behaviors in any major way.
Are Cyborgs the Next Step in Human Evolution?
If your smartphone is glued to your hand, then, we believe you are already a kind of Cyborg.
Time To Get Dirty: Harvesting Ancient Wisdom
The microbial pendulum is swinging back in the direction of embracing germs, and harvesting ancient wisdom into the mass personalization of microbial harmony.
Humans: 10% Human and 90% Bacterial
We now understand that humans are 90% microbial but only 10% human.
Hacking Healthcare: How Technology is Making Us All Citizen Doctors
The future of medicine is predictive, personalized, preventative and is moving from being episodic and reactive to continuous and proactive.
3D Printing and the 21st Century Blacksmith
Today's “blacksmith” is a skilled designer/3-D Printer with highly developed skills in CAD design who is able to help locals prototype and create custom products that they concept for various uses.
Drop Out Now: The Only Way to Get an Education is to Hack it.
Learning is no longer a singular event, but rather an ongoing project to keep yourself updated with the latest skills and knowledge.
Imagine No Possessions: In the Future, We’ll Share Everything
In the second installment of our “8 Trends That Will Shape Humanity” series, we look at the rise of the "city state" and how the coming consolidation of humanity into cities will change life for residents of these massive urban hubs.
8 Exponential Trends That Will Shape Humanity
Our global society has entered a period of accelerated change, and these changes are reshaping entire industries, economic models and institutions. Our blind spot comes from the fact that we […]
Take A Peek Into The Future: 3 Things to Look for When Hiring a Trend Forecaster
The future is coming and it’s coming at a fast and furious pace. How can brands keep up with this ever-accelerating velocity of disruption? A recent article in Fast Company explores […]
The Red Equal Sign: How The Modern Family is Evolving
If you went on Facebook yesterday, it may have appeared that everyone’s profile had suddenly gotten hacked. Your timeline was probably awash in a sea of red equal signs or […]
From Gamification to Shamification
Gamification, using game mechanics to improve learning, engagement and behavior change, has been a trend for a long time now. Make it a game! Everything from fitness to work to […]
Meditation Is the New Yoga: Bringing Mindfulness Into the Workplace
“If You’re Too Busy To Meditate, Read This,” proclaimed a wildly popular Harvard Business Review story a few months ago. It was but one data point we observed as we […]
A Day In the Life Of An Advertising Newsroom
During this year’s Super Bowl, brands like Oreo and Tide didn’t just stick to their traditional pre-planned paid advertising routine—they tried something new. Along with six others, they flexed their […]
Why Do People Believe In Aliens, Angels and Conspiracies?
Is it just us, or does it seem like everyone is turning into a conspiracy theorist these days?Aliens, spirit guides, the Illuminati – name some mysterious pocket of paranoia or […]
Making Meals Your Meditation: 3 Steps to Mindful Eating
During our research into the explosion in popularity of Conscious Media, we noticed a broad meta trend developing that circumscribes smaller conscious“food subcultures” – such as raw foodism, veganism or […]
You’re Getting Conscious — Even If You Didn’t Know It
Did you see Life of Pi or Cloud Atlas? How about Prometheus or Avatar? Have you picked up a bestseller by Deepak Chopra or Eckhart Tolle? Do you ever leaf […]
How 100 Million Americans Are Becoming More Conscious
Today we are releasing our whitepaper The Explosion of Conscious Media, created in partnership with Gaiam TV, the premier aggregator of Conscious Media content. The report defines Conscious Media and […]
5 Trends for 2013: FUTURE
This week, in the final installment of a 3-part series, we look to five trends that will shape the Future.
5 Trends for 2013: NEXT
Perfect beauty, HD photography, 3D printing, Elective Bionic Surgery, biohackers, and no religion are all trends to watch for 2013.
5 Trends for 2013: NOW
"Now" trends are those with high energy and can be leveraged in the present; "Next" trends will begin to manifest towards the end of 2013 and gain traction through 2014; "Future" trends are fringe signals that will play out in 2015 and beyond.
What the Election Results Mean For America’s Future
The 2012 election was game changing for America, producing groundbreaking shifts involving social issues, such as the legalization of same-sex marriage, and recreational marijuana use, and historical milestones for women […]
Data-Driven Discovery Is the Future of Advertising
For several weeks leading up to yesterday’s election the forecasters were at odds. While traditional polls and pundits predicted an election that was “too close to call,” as noted today […]